Spiritual garden sites grow as people seek peaceful places

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
With spring's arrival, some homeowners are busy preparing their gardens.
They're shopping for roses, herbs, crosses, Buddhist statues and Star of David plant markers.
Excuse me?
Make way for the spiritual garden.
It is gaining in popularity, the Wall Street Journal reports, because in these post-Sept. 11, 2001, times, people are looking for introspection and peace.
Designers and landscape artists told the Journal that increasing numbers of clients are requesting religious objects. They are adding Celtic crosses, angels and statues of St. Francis.
One Web site, fourgates.com, which sells such items as Tibetan prayer wheels and archangels, says business is up 40 percent in two years.
The symbols do not necessarily reflect the religion the homeowners practice, if they practice. Some people mix Tibetan prayer seats with likenesses of St. Francis.
And the gardens are not inexpensive. Exterior-accents.com has a $130 cross that glows at night.
One man is spending more than $17,000 to convert a tennis court into a winding stone path like medieval Christians walked.
One warning from the designers: Don't overdo. One object is enough for a small garden.